Google News Archive Forum

With Update Florida creating such a stir, it's becoming clear that many of our friends around the web don't know how the updates get their names. Well, I'm here to set the record straight for those who don't know -- it all started here on WebmasterWorld, early in this year of 2003.

The first element in the process involved a bit of Internet history. At SES Boston this year, Dan Dulitz (representing Google) gave the official word to a room full of Internet marketers that indeed, the new Google update had begun. And so, on the forums here, we began to call it the Boston update, for the sake of clarity.

And then the idea struck our own NFFC -- why not name the updates the way that hurricanes are named? It would make a great shorthand way to discuss the update and all related issues.

And so we did. At the time, we also assumed that the updates would be roughly once a month [webmasterworld.com], which did not hold up. But the tradition of naming each major shake-up in the Google index has continued.

I tracked down the update threads for each name and had a blast re-visiting all the old conversations. Hope others will enjoy this trip down memory lane, and the perspective it brings to this moment.

Due to time differences, we in the UK often post when America is asleep (and vice versa).

It was I who first spotted the update here in the UK, and was surprised (bemused?) a few hours later that it had been named Florida when you guys woke up.

Obviously it has to begin with an F, but it seemed to me it was hardly a coincidence that the next PubConference is in Florida ;)

I nevertheless attempted to have it renamed 'Update Filey (North Yorkshire)' - made a couple of posts to this effect, and even sent a sticky to GoogleGuy claiming precedence, and asking him to use Update Filey (North Yorkshire) in one of his posts.

I don't think he would mind if I state that he did reply, found it amusing, and suggested he might refer to Update Filey in a future post. But it was all tongue in cheek, and he's a polite guy and he didn't.

But there is your complete inside history - it should be 'Update Filey (North Yorkshire)' - all within quotes (for the simple reason that few people, even in the UK, know where Filey is!)

p.s. as a mark of goodwill, perhaps update G could be taken from a UK place-name. Maybe Greenwich? I see you use UTC after all ;)

The World Meteorological Organization is currently in charge of naming hurricanes. It is their policy that if a hurricane does significant damage, it's name will be retired for good. For example, Hurricane Andrew.

Can we be assured from webmasterworld.com that the name Florida will be retired for eternity?

I don't know what happened to Galen - it was clearly a false alarm. So will Galen stick as the new name? Or will it be Update Greenwich. It would be a nice gesture towards my fellow countrymen. But please feel free to ignore my post... ;)

<edit: hey - you can even pretend it refers to Greenwich Village if it makes you feel better :) >

But what did we see on friday when some PRs changed? Wasn't it an update? If it was one, I would call it GoogleGuy, because he's the only one who knows if it was one or not. GG, maybe you want to confirm friday as update day? :)

Call me a newbie but I always thought that a dance/update is when baclinks/PR is updated. I think we see a rolling update of SERPs nower days, whereas PR and backlinks are displayed a few days later after they have been calculated into the SERPs.